Erich Eliskases

Erich Gottlieb Eliskases (born February 15, 1913 in Innsbruck , † February 2, 1997 in Córdoba / Argentina ) was an Austrian - Argentine chess player .

Life

Erich Eliskases' father was a master tailor, the family of Ladin origin. After completing school, Eliskases first studied at the University of World Trade in Vienna , but dropped out in favor of professional chess. Since 1939 he lived in South America. In the 1940s, existential worries forced him back into civil professions. In 1951, he settled in Córdoba and took the Argentine citizenship. On May 18, 1954, he married the Argentine Maria Esther Almedo in Córdoba. With her he had a son, Carlos Enrico. In 1997 he died in his adopted home.

Chess career

Start of career

He had learned chess at the age of twelve. "But as a result of his youth he couldn't find a place in a chess club." In 1926 he joined the Innsbrucker Schachgesellschaft, which had recently been founded, and learned a lot from its president, the Tyrolean master player Carl Wagner. In 1928 he became a Tyrolean champion. Due to his success in club tournaments, he qualified for the championship tournament of the Austrian Chess Association in Innsbruck in 1929, which he won with 6.5 out of 9 points together with Esra Glass , whereupon both players were awarded the Austrian championship title. The Viennese chess newspaper wrote at the time: Particularly noteworthy is the success of the 16-year-old Tyrolean national champion Eliskases, who has demonstrated a healthy approach to the game and mature skills. His name will have to be remembered well, because great deeds can be expected from him in his youth. A year later, in 1930 , Eliskases represented Austria for the first time at the Chess Olympiad in Hamburg and achieved an excellent result (+8, −1, = 6). In autumn 1931 he moved to Vienna, where he studied at the Export Academy, having previously completed his studies at the Innsbruck Business Academy, where he joined the Hietzing chess club and won the annual club tournament. In October 1932 he defeated Rudolf Spielmann in a competition with 5.5-4.5 (+3 = 5 −2) and in January 1933 he won a chess tournament in Vienna with 10.5 out of 13 points ahead of Ernst Grünfeld .

Rise to the extended world elite

During the 1930s he became one of the best players in the world and participated in every major tournament. With the Austrian national team he took part in 1933 in Folkestone and 1935 in Warsaw again in the Chess Olympiads and in 1935 achieved the best individual result on the third board. His most successful phase began in the late 1930s, when he won in Zurich and Swinoujscie in 1936 as well as in Noordwijk in 1938 (ahead of Paul Keres and Max Euwe ), Milan in 1939 and Bad Harzburg in 1939. In 1939 in Bad Elster he was also first ahead of Josef Lokvenc . In between he seconded in 1937 Alexander Alekhine in the World Cup fight against Euwe. After the annexation of Austria , he won the championships of the Greater German Chess Federation in 1938 and 1939 . In a competition organized in 1939 against Efim Bogoljubow , he won with 11.5-8.5 (+6 = 11 −3). At the unofficial Chess Olympiad in Munich in 1936 , he played on the top board for Austria. He was a member of the Greater German team at the 1939 Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires when World War II broke out during the tournament . After leading the German team to victory at the Olympics, he and his teammates Ludwig Engels , Paul Michel , Albert Becker and Heinrich Reinhardt did not return to Europe, but began a new life in South America .

Game example

Eliskases – Capablanca

	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H
8th									8th
7th									7th
6th									6th
5									5
4th									4th
3									3
2									2
1									1
	a	b	c	d	e	f	G	H

End position after 82.Bxh5

In the following game Eliskases defeated the ex-world champion José Raúl Capablanca in a precisely guided runner endgame in the high-class tournament in Semmering / Baden 1937 with the white stones .

Eliskases – Capablanca 1-0

Baden, September 22, 1937

Slav Defense (Czech Defense), D17

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. Ne5 Nbd7 7. Nxc4 Qc7 8. g3 e5 9. dxe5 Nxe5 10. Bf4 Nfd7 11. Bg2 f6 12. 0–0 Rd8 13.Qc1 Be6 14.Nxe5 Nxe5 15. a5 a6 16. Ne4 Bb4 17. Bd2 De7 18.Bxb4 Qxb4 19. Qc5 Qxc5 20.Nxc5 Bc8 21.Rfd1 Ke7 22.b3 Nf7 23.e4 Rd6 24.Rxd6 Kxd6 25. b4 Kc7 26.Rd1 Td8 27.Rxd8 Nxd8 28.f4 ​​b6 29. axb6 + Kxb6 30. Bf1 Ne6 31.Na4 + Kc7 32.Kf2 g5 33.Ke3 gxf4 + 34.gxf4 Ng7 35.Nc5 Ne6 36.Nxe6 + Bxe6 37. Kd4 Kb6 38.Bc4 Bg4 39. e5 fxe5 + 40. fxe5 h6 41. h4 Bh5 42. e6 Be8 43.Bd3 Kc7 44. Kc5 Bh5 45. Bh7 Bg4 46. e7 Kd7 47.Be4 Kxe7 48. Bxc6 Be2 49. Bb7 Kd7 50. Kb6 Kd6 51.Bxa6 Bf3 52. Ka5 Bc6 53.Bb5 Bf3 54. Bd3 Bc6 55. Bc2 Kc7 56.Ba4 Bf3 57. b5 Kb7 58. b6 Be2 59. Bc2 Bf3 60. Bd3 Bg2 61. Ba6 + Kc6 62. Bc8 Bf7 63.Bg4 Bd3 64. Bf3 + Kd6 65. Bb7 Be2 66. Ba6 Bf3 67. Bf1 Bb7 68. Bh3 Ke7 69. Kb5 Kd6 70. Bf5 Ke7 71. Kc5 Bg2 72. Bc8 Kd8 73. Ba6 Bf3 74. Kd6 Bg2 75. Bc4 Kc8 76.Bd5 Bf1 77. Ke6 Be2 78. Kf6 Kd7 79. Kg6 h5 80. Kg5 Kd6 81.Bf7 Kc6 82. Bxh5 1: 0

Career end in South America

Eliskases' stay on the other side of the Atlantic shattered plans by German chess officials to host a world championship match between Alekhine and Eliskases in Germany in 1941. He won 1948 in Mar del Plata (before Ståhlberg and Najdorf ) in a strong and international field; In the retrospectively calculated world rankings, he was still one of the ten best players in the world. In 1950 he received the title of International Master at the first award from FIDE . Eliskases was able to qualify for the 1952 interzonal tournament in Stockholm - Saltsjöbaden . Eliskases achieved a good result with an undivided 10th place out of 21 participants, with the first eight players qualified for the Candidates Tournament. FIDE awarded him the title of Grand Master in the same year . Since then, Eliskases has seldom played in tournaments outside of South America and could not quite build on his previous chess successes. His sole second place at the traditional blast furnace tournament in Beverwijk 1959, behind Olafsson , in front of players like Donner , O'Kelly de Galway or Larsen, should be emphasized . For Argentina he played four more times in the years 1952 , 1958 , 1960 and 1964 at the Chess Olympiads, he achieved second place with the team in 1952 and third in 1958. Sporadically he took part in tournaments until the 1970s.

Chess literary production

A book written by Eliskases in 1941 appeared for the first time in German in 2000 under the title Stellungsspiel . In 1962 his German translation of Román Torán's biography David Bronstein - Creator's Spirit of the Latest Chess Direction was published in Amsterdam (the Spanish original was published in Madrid in 1957), which Eliskases expanded with his own analyzes .

Historical world rankings

In 1948 Eliskases reached its highest ranking with rank 7. His best historical rating was 2713 in January 1949, which meant 8th place in the world rankings. From the early 1930s to the mid 1950s, Eliskases was consistently one of the 25 strongest players in the world.

literature

• Frank Zeller , Tim Hagemann: Forgotten Masters: a textbook and reader with the best roles by Leonhardt, Rotlewi, Sultan Khan, Petrow and Eliskases. Schachverlag Kania, Eberdingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-931192-39-6 .

Web links

• Obituary of the Wiener Zeitung
• Complete overview of all tournaments, BrasilBase
• Replayable chess games by Erich Eliskases on chessgames.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Linzer Tagblatt, July 3, 1937 .
2. ↑ Wiener Schachzeitung, No. 19, October 1929, p. 290.
3. ^ German chess sheets , issue 8/1938, Erich Eliskases (curriculum vitae)
4. ↑ ^{a b c d} Erich Eliskases' results at the Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
5. ↑ The international tournament in Bad Elster in 1939 on TeleSchach (cross table and games)
6. ↑ German individual championship 1938 in Bad Oeynhausen on TeleSchach (cross table and games)
7. ↑ German individual championship 1939 in Bad Oeynhausen on TeleSchach (cross table and games)
8. ↑ Erich Eliskases' results at unofficial Chess Olympiads on olimpbase.org (English)
9. ↑ Michael Ehn: The Life and Times of Erich Eliskases
10. ↑ Willy Iclicki: FIDE Golden book 1924-2002 . Euroadria, Slovenia, 2002, p. 74.
11. ↑ Caissa, Kecskemét 2000; At the same time Tübingen contributions on the topic of chess , Volume 5, Promos, Pfullingen 2000, ISBN 3-88502-023-8 .
12. ^ W. Ten Have Verlag, Amsterdam 1962.
13. ↑ Román Torán: Bronstein. El genio del ajedrez moderno. Ricardo Aguliera publisher, Madrid 1957.